


Eren Doesn't Know French

by teamfreetitan



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, French-Speaking Jean Kirstein, I didn't mean to ship it but here I am, M/M, actually, erejean - Freeform, erejean hell, in hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 18:23:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4232091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamfreetitan/pseuds/teamfreetitan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The infamous jerk Jean Kirstein hands Eren a note. The problem is, it's in French, and Eren doesn't know French.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eren Doesn't Know French

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! I apologize for my absence from the fanfiction world, but I tend to start and not finish a lot of things . . .
> 
> Anyway, I decided I need to write a fanfic, since I'm currently stuck in literal erejean hell. I hope you enjoy!

“Armin, you’re taking French, right?” The words of his brown haired friend pulled Armin’s attention from his book and caused him to look up. He nodded, grabbing his bookmark and closing his book.

Eren showed Armin a piece of paper. There wasn’t anything special about it; it was just a plain piece of notebook paper from a spiral with Eren’s name on the front. “What does this have to do with French?”

_The bell had already rung, and damn it, all Eren wanted to do was go to his study hall period so he could finish at least some of his mountain of homework, but of course, Jean was the one who had to stop him._

_“What do you want, Horseface?” Eren had asked passive-aggressively. All he had gotten in response was the taller boy thrusting a plain piece of paper into Eren’s hand before he stormed away, leaving Eren confused and slightly worried._

_He delicately unfolded it, expecting some sort of note like “Hey, you piece of shit, I hate your guts. Go die.” Of course, that’s not what it said, probably, but Eren wouldn’t have known, because the bastard had to go and write it in French._

_The thing was, Eren didn’t know French. He wouldn’t have been able to tell it was French had it not been for overhearing Jean brag to Marco about being bilingual, and Armin mentioning Jean was in his French class._

“So you want me to translate this for you?” Armin asked after Eren finished explaining what the hell it had to do with his French classes. “To find out if Jean was insulting you in French?” Eren nodded. Armin sighed, setting his book on the library table and reaching for the paper in Eren’s hand

“Eren, je t'aime vraiment, et je voulais aller au bal avec toi, mais je ne pourrais jamais te demander ça et j'avais besoin d'enlever ce poids de ma poitrine” Armin whispered as he read. As soon as the words left his mouth, he began to chuckle softly.

The standing boy looked as offended as he could. “Why are you laughing? You’re supposed to be on my side!”

Armin folded the paper and handed it back to Eren. “I am, and it appears I’m not the only one.” He picked up his book and continued to read, and an even more confused and slightly angry Eren made his way back to homeroom.

~~~

Before their writing class the next day, you could sure as hell bet that Eren Jaeger stormed over to the desk of the blonde jerk. “Jean!” he called, interrupting Jean’s conversation with the freckled boy next to him. He threw the paper down on his desk. “What the hell does this mean!”

Jean raised his eyebrows. “So you didn’t try and get Armin to translate it?” he asked, genuinely surprised.

“I did, and the fucker wouldn’t tell me!” By now, most of the other kids in their class were looking up, with hardly any exclusions. “Seriously, Jean, if you’re going to insult me, do it to my face, in English, you cowardly piece of shit!”

Eren heard Annie mutter something about Eren needing to calm the fuck down, because, yeah, he was practically yelling. He also heard a specific blonde laughing quietly into his book from the front of the classroom. Even sweet, kind-hearted Marco was laughing next to Jean. “I can’t believe you actually did it,” Marco said, more to himself than anyone else.

“Hey, Armin! Thanks!” Jean yelled to the front of the room without responding to Eren.

“Anytime,” he quietly called back, causing Eren to let out and angry breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. As he was about to erupt into more angry almost-yelling, their teacher, Mr. Smith, walked in.

Students started to take their seats, which, unfortunately included Eren.

~~~

Thankfully, their next period was their study hall period. Preferably, Eren could get some damn answers now. He was _fuming_. This asshole who had been bullying him for three years, five if you include middle school, was sending him messages that no one would tell him what they said, his best friend and practically the nicest person in their grade were laughing at him, and everyone else didn’t understand how frustrated he was and kept telling him all class to calm down. He was tired of it.

So, at the beginning of his free period, he told his teacher that he needed to talk to another teacher for some homework help. While that wasn’t exactly true, he was given a hall pass and marched down to Mr. Rivaille’s classroom the second it was in his hand.

The classroom was silent; all the kids in his class, some of which Eren recognized, were reading or working on homework. “Mr. Rivaille?” Eren addressed the man when he was near his desk. The French teacher looked up.

“May I help you?” he responded, not looking up from the paper he was grading.

“Well, you see, there’s a boy in your French class, he’s kind of a jerk, actually, but he gave me this note,” Eren began sliding the paper to the ebony-haired teacher. “My friend, Armin, wouldn’t tell me what it meant, and no one else I know knows French, and I was hoping you’d translate it for me?”

Mr. Rivaille picked up the paper, and his small, gray eyes read the few lines of French before he handed the paper back to Eren. “I see. Jean is quite proficient in this class, after all, and I understand why Armin wouldn’t tell you what it meant.”

“Were they mocking me? Jean has a tendency to do that, but I didn’t think Armin has a mean bone in his body . . .”

Eren fiddled with the edges of the paper as Mr. Rivaille responded. “No, Mr. Jaeger, they were not mocking you.”

“Then what does it say?”

“Honestly, I don’t think I should be telling you this. This is something Jean should be telling you himself. Trust me, though, when I tell you he wasn’t insulting you. I’d advise you to get back to class now, Mr. Jaeger.”

And Eren walked back to class. Somewhat of a mixed emotion settled in his chest, because he could trust Mr. Rivaille on this, he was a teacher after all. So maybe it wasn’t bad, and he had started to freak out over assumption earlier, but he still didn’t have an answer to what the hell the note said, and the fact that no one would tell him, just pissed him off more.

~~~

“Jean?”

The boy looked up from gathering his things from his locker to see the green eyes boy standing next to it. “What?”

Eren rubbed his right bicep with his hand. “Could you _please_ just tell me what the damn note says. No one will tell me. Not Armin, and not even Mr, Rivialle would tell me; he just said you should be the one to tell me. So, I’m sorry I lashed out at you earlier, but I just don't get why everyone’s against me and I need an answer!”

“Just drop it,” Jean responded quietly before shutting his locker.

“I need you to tell me.”  
  


Jean’s head snapped up. “Tu saves, si toi es trop stupide pour voir comment je me sens, tu peux simplement embrasser mon cul! Marco avait raison, il était un plan stupide, si juste faire foutre!” he yelled, causing a couple nearby people to look up.

The blonde turned around and stormed off, leaving Eren alone in the hall, with a few kids whispering and sending glances at him.

~~~

Eren, confused and angry, met up with Mikasa and Armin at their usual spot outside to walk home. “Are you okay, Eren? What happened?” Mikasa asked when he walked up. It was obvious he was mad, and if he was being completely honest, hurt, too. His steps were closer to stomps, and his hands were shoved harshly into the pockets of his emerald green jacket. Eren looked up at his friends with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.

“ _No_ , and Jean fucking Kirstein happened,” he responded bitterly before shoving past the two, not even waiting to walk with them.

“What did he do this time?” Mikasa asked.

“He yelled at me, in the middle of the hall, in _French_. Then he stormed away, like a coward. Who the hell does that?”

“What did he say?” Armin asked quietly.

Eren stopped in his tracks, whipping around to face his shorter friend. “If I knew what he said, I’d tell you! But, in case you hadn’t realized, I don’t know French! This is why this is happening in the first place! Because no one actually cares enough to tell me! Not you, not even Mr. Rivaille!” he yelled.

“If you want me to tell you that badly, I suppose I could . . .” Armin said.

“Well, the thing is, that would have been great, if you’d just told me yesterday when I asked you in the first place, before all this shit happened. Seriously, Armin, you’re not helping! Maybe I’ll just go beat it out of that fucker.”

“Wait,” Armin tugged on Eren’s sleeve, “you can’t do that.”

Eren glared at the blonde. “I thought you were my friend, Armin. Why do you keep taking his side? Seriously, if you’re going to keep doing that you can just leave.”

Armin looked hurt. Like, really hurt. Like, on-the-verge-of-tears hurt. And angry. “If that’s what you want, then fine.” Armin turned around and strode right back into the building.

“Fine!” Eren yelled at him, needing to have the last word. He turned around, and bolted, sliding past a group of freshmen, leaving Mikasa by herself in the middle of the courtyard.

~~~

Armin pulled out his phone and sent a text to Jean once he was in the safety of the library. _Please tell me you’re still near the school_

Jean’s response came a couple seconds later. _Yeah, why?_

_Meet me in the library asap_

Jean did just that. A few minutes later, he was strolling in the door, and Armin was there waiting for him. He motioned for Jean to follow him, and sat down at a table. Jean sat in the chair across from him, and asked, “What’s up?”

“Please ask out Eren.”

  
  
“Wait, what?”

“Now Eren’s mad at me because I refused to tell him what it meant and he thinks I don’t like him anymore,” Armin explained, surprisingly calm.

“Oh, God,” Jean said, folding his arms on the table and laying his head on them. “I’m sorry. I’m such an idiot.”

Armin stood up. “I’m going to try and talk to Eren later. I’m sure he’ll come around, and I don’t want you to be mad, or to blame yourself. Just, I think that the note thing might not’ve been the best way to go, so please just resolve it. _In English this time._ "

Jean sighed, looking up and nodded. “Alright, but I’m sorry for putting you through this.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Jean.”

He nodded.

~~~

Eren hated being an angry crier. He couldn’t help it, after all, but it was terrible either way. His mom used to say it was okay to be sensitive, because everyone gets upset and some people react differently. The thing was, Eren was angry a lot. Depending on _how_ he was angry, he just couldn’t stop the tears flowing sometimes.

Now was one of those times.

When he ran into his house, ran up the stairs, dropping his bag haphazardly on the ground and throwing himself onto the bed, where he started to cry. Armin was mad at him, and probably didn’t even want to be his friend anymore. Not to mention that Jean was an asshole, a really cute asshole, who made it his mission to make Eren miserable, and had everyday for five years.

It was because of this that Eren let himself cry. He didn’t care that he was sixteen years old, or that he’d gone through worse, or that he was a boy. Eren just couldn’t stop the tears from coming.

He’d felt like this a couple times before, that feeling where you feel like you’ll never stop crying. For example, after his mom died, he’d cried himself to sleep, barely ate, and his only words were angry outbursts for over a week.

Eren cried until he couldn’t cry anymore, and he didn’t leave his room afterwards. Mikasa came to check on him once, and so did his dad after he came home from work at the hospital, but Eren stayed in his room. The only time he went out was in the darkness of the middle of the night, when he was absolutely sure that Mikasa and his dad would both be asleep. Even then, he only grabbed a single bag of chips and and a cheese stick.

After that, he returned to his room to eat it and do, well, nothing. Sit in the darkness, maybe open his window and climb on the roof and look at the stars, certainly not homework, because he couldn’t care less if he had late work.

Eventually, he just needed some fresh air, and he did open his window and sit on the ledge, looking out. Armin hadn’t even texted him once, and Eren was starting to think deeper, because what if Armin never actually wanted to be friends with him and was finally snapping? What if he and Jean were making fun of him behind his back?

But Mr. Rivaille had said that it wasn’t bad, and Eren should at least be able to trust him, right? He was a teacher. But he also said that Jean had to tell Eren himself, and that obviously wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Eren sighed and looked back at the stars.

He yawned, and shivered in the cold. It would have been a good time to go back in, he decided, and hopped back in, closing the window.

~~~

The next day was . . . interesting.

Eren hadn’t looked at the clock, but as it turns out, he got less than a hour of sleep. He was stumbling through his morning, shoving a piece of toast in his mouth and grabbing his backpack that was still packed with yesterday’s things. He knew that there were probably dark bags below his eyes, but honestly, he didn’t care.

He avoided Armin all morning, and Armin was probably thankful he didn’t have to talk to a brat like Eren anymore, right?

By lunch, Eren tried to walk in the cafeteria, he really did. He got about three steps in before backing out.There wasn’t exactly anyone he could sit with. Of the tables he could see, one had Reiner, Bert, Annie, Ymir, and Christa, but no, that wouldn’t happen. One was his usual, but only Mikasa, Connie, and Sasha were there today. The only one in his sight had Marco, Jean, and of course, Armin Arlert, and oh, hell no. He turned right around, and walked out. His only other option was to sit by himself, but he really didn’t want to look like a friendless loser right at the end of the year.

There was a few kids in the hallways, but thankfully, Eren didn’t know any of them. He just kept going; he didn’t even know where. Finally, he found himself outside the building, and he sat down at one of the picnic table in the grass.

He could have chosen somewhere more practical, maybe more cliche given his situation. He could have found a nice chair in the library, or, God forbid, the boy’s bathroom. Right now, though, he just needed to be outside those walls. Eren sighed and put his head in his hands.

“Eren!” When he heard his name called, he looked up, only to see none other than Jean Kirstein sliding onto the bench next to him.

“What the hell do you want now?” Eren snapped in response, looking away.

“I wanted to talk to you, please?” Jean asked nervously. When Eren didn’t say anything, he continued. “Junior prom is coming up, you know . . .”  
  


Eren huffed. “What? Are you going to make fun of me for not getting a date, or something?”

Jean scooted a little bit closer to Eren. “What? No. I was, well, I . . . I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me.”

Eren forced a laugh. “I see what you’re doing. If I say yes, you’re just gonna give me shit about it, because _Armin_ figured it out and told you, didn’t he? So you think that I’ll say yes, right? And then you'll ridicule me. Well, no, Jean, I won’t go with you.”

“Oh,” Jean said. Eren looked away again as Jean stood up. He could hear Jean walk away, which soon enough turned into a run, but Eren didn’t bother to watch him go.

He couldn’t find the strength to stand up or go near the building until he heard the bell ring and he knew he had to go back to class, which, damn, was writing. Being forced to be in a room with virtually no friends for an hour and a half, _fun_.

~~~

Eren just wanted to get through class without talking to anyone. Apparently, because his luck seems to be going really south lately, that wasn’t the case.

As he was pulling papers out from his backpack, Armin handed him a piece of paper. “Here’s the translation you were so eager for, and just so you know, you completely broke his heart.” Armin walked away after that, leaving Eren the slip of paper.

 _“I really like you and I want to go to the dance with you, but I would never be able to ask you and I had to get that off my chest.”_ Eren stared down at Armin’s slim writing, and he was sure he was imagining things. There’s no way that Jean would have written that down, even if it was in French. But he did, Eren remembered.

Eren spent the rest of the class period, and most of the study hall processing not only what Armin had written, but what he said. “You completely broke his heart.” Certainly that couldn’t have been right, but when Eren looked back the first time, Jean had his head in his hand, staring out the window with a glossy look in his eye, and the second time, he was staring at Eren with the same look, causing him to look away blushing. He certainly _looked_ heartbroken.

Eren needed to think. Okay, so Eren hadn’t told anyone about his helpless infatuation with Jean. Armin had been taking Jean’s side with a lot of things lately, defending him. Armin obviously known about the note, and he wouldn’t give him a wrong translation, even if he was mad. Jean did seem upset when Eren had denied him. Not to mention how Jean had taken every opportunity to get Eren’s attention, even if Eren was upset. Which led him to the conclusion of . . .

Of what, exactly? Of Eren being more confused than he already was. He couldn’t read people, not the way Armin could.

~~~

After the final bell, Eren decided he was finally going to do something, and it was going to be helpful. Not annoying, not stupid, or reckless, or any other the other things he usually was. Romantic maybe? Probably, he realized, awkward, in the end.

Regardless, when Eren walked into the courtyard and saw not only Mikasa and Armin where they usually met to walk home together, but Marco and _Jean_ , he couldn’t back out this time. Not if Jean really had been being serious earlier.

“Hey,” he said when he showed up to the group, and got a chorus of hey’s in response. “Jean, I was . . . wondering if I could talk to you really quick?” Eren looked up to Jean with hopeful eyes. The taller boy nodded, motioning for Eren to walk with him.

They walked together, following the sidewalks on the side of the building. “I’m sorry, about being a total dick to you lately,” Eren said quietly. “I didn’t realize you were being serious earlier. I thought . . . I thought Armin got tired of me or whatever, and when I saw you two at lunch, I thought he was trying to get you to ask me to put me off, and I’ve just been really confused lately. I think what I’m trying to say is that if you still want to go to the dance with me, I’m saying yes.”

“Really? Hell yeah, I’ll go with you. See, I had started talking to Armin and Marco, because I, uh, liked you for a really long time, and Armin kept saying that he was sure you liked me back even though you hadn’t said anything,” Eren blushed, “but I didn’t know how to ask, and then I gave you the note, and that actually was a stupid plan, and yesterday I cussed you out in French, and I’m sorry.”

Eren laughed. “Yeah, what were you even saying? In case you couldn’t tell, I don’t know French.”

Now it was Jean’s turn to laugh. “Well, it may or may not have included the phrase ‘If you’re too stupid to see how I feel, you can  just kiss my ass.’” Eren chuckled softly.

“Typical,” he joked, walking a little bit closer to Jean and not-so-subtly grabbing his hand. “Still, that’s impressive. You should teach me to cuss like that in French. My dad hates it when I cuss, and Mikasa’s not big on cussing, either.”

“Sure,” Jean responded casually. “Cussing is my strong point, and I’m sure you’ll catch on soon enough. That is, if you’re willing to go on another date after the dance this weekend?”

Eren looked over to Jean. “Do you even need to ask? Obviously, it’s a yes, Horseface.” Eren playfully nudged the taller boy’s elbow with his own.

“Good to hear, Shithead,” he responded, nudging Eren back.

By now, they had walked the entire perimeter of the school, and they were back to where the rest of their friends were chatting amongst themselves.

“Oh, hey, you two,” Marco greeted them, and Armin and Mikasa greeted them as well a second later.

Marco and Jean said their goodbyes to Armin, Mikasa, and Eren, because they all needed to be going home. “See you later?” Jean asked, directed at Eren, who nodded.

“See you later.”

 

**End**

 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, kudos, and bookmarks are appreciated!
> 
> If you want to reach me, you can find me on Instagram, Tumblr, and Vine at teamfreetitan.


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